[winston optic beer]

When my first partner and I got together in our late teens, we’d take any opportunity to be alone with each other. Once at my friend’s house, we made out in a bedroom during his parents’ absence. I suppose my friend must have been with his own girlfriend but I can’t recall the full facts.

After clearing up, I got dressed. However, she seemed reluctant to put her clothes back on and hung out in the nude. I didn’t know why she stayed naked and can only speculate she enjoyed the sense of freedom. Maybe it was a novelty for her to be naked as her family wouldn’t tolerate it at home. I remember she stood facing towards the door and leaned against a set of bunk beds.

Predictably, my pal appeared in the doorway to ask us something. She made no attempt to cover herself as we talked. I couldn’t tell if she considered it cool to be nonchalant about being caught naked by a guy or if she just enjoyed displaying herself to him.

It seems likely she engineered the situation knowing my friend would come looking for us. Maybe she thought I’d get off on it and I should have been flattered she’d do that for me. It might have even been her way teasing me or my friend to see how we reacted. Possibly she just felt like doing something outrageously sexy in the afterglow of what we'd been doing. It could have even been her way of thanking him for the use of his bedroom. When he’d gone, I was anxious to be cool myself and didn’t ask her what had been on her mind.

The next time we met, my friend asked why the hell she was naked when I was dressed. He’d had a good look because he said he’d seen her vulva (probably not the word he used) in graphic detail. She was a slim girl and I guess he’d only had fuller figured women with less prominent genitals. I thought he meant this was an abnormality. I wasn’t bothered he’d checked her out just pissed at his disparaging comments.

Over the years that followed, I found she was relaxed about nudity in front of friends. She loved to sunbathe in the nude – if the sun went behind a big cloud she’d ask for sex because she believed it made the sun come back out. It didn’t always work but I enjoyed trying. She even decorated naked because paint came off skin easier than it came off clothes. With the benefit of hindsight, I feel privileged to have known such a woman. I should have celebrated her lack of inhibition more while she was still around.